Rhapsody
by Sarcastic Tofu
Summary: AU/Pre-Massacre. As a gesture of peace bewteen Iwagakure and Konohagakure a suspected serial killer was turned over to the Leaf's Torture and Interrogation Department. Such was the beginning of the ripper murders.
1. The Silent Melody

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)**

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~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter one: The Silent Melody ~

From within the thick masoned walls of the Iwagakure's only asylum Taru Wakahisa stared out one of the thousands of closed windows at the frosty December snow silently fall outside. The six year old child brushed a few strands of his raven black hair out of his unmatching eyes. Each eye watched longingly, one a pale blue like a puddle reflecting sunlight and the other a deep chocolate brown, at the frozen rain. Without making a sound the child placed his guitar against one of the rod iron legs of his bed and carefully placed the sheet music he had been composing underneath it so as not to be seen by the staff. The raven haired child walked to the closed window and placed a small hand on the latch.

_**ZAP!**_

A loud static sound erupted around the room as volts of electricity flowed from the latch through his small body.

Taru let out a silent scream of pain as he fell to the carpeted floor with an excruciating slam.

The world around him blurred and faded into blackness as the six year old lost conscious.

-----------------------------------

Miyuki Tanaka smiled at her supervisor as she was handed her latest case assignment. After this case she would be finished with her CORE training and would be allowed to work in the interrogation department like her older siblings.

"I want you to be especially careful with this one Miyuki-san", remarked her supervisor in a hushed tone, "I've heard this one is dangerous. According to my bosses he murdered the nurses that were placed in charge of his of his case, all fifteen of them."

Miyuki bit her lower lip in horror before nodding a quick thanks and leaving the room.

The toffee haired Jounin then let out a frightened gasp as she read over her new patient's case file.

_

* * *

Name: Wakahisa, Taru_

_Age: Six years [Date of birth- February thirteenth]_

_Blood type: AB negative_

_Loyalty: Iwagakure- In question_

_Rank: Chunin [A to S class]_

_- Graduated from the Academy at age 5; nearly perfect scores on jutsu Graduation Exam and 100% on the written test._

_- Passed Chunin Exam at age 6 [Summer Exams held in Kirigakure]; high marks in all three sections._

_- Removed from CORE's Genetic Rehabilitation Program [CGRP] on October twenty-eighth of this year for undisclosed reasons; court ordered to Iwagakure Mental Facility [current]_

_- [Skills chart and photo attached]_

_Kekkei Genkai: none known_

_Relatives: Wakahisa Clan (four shinobi, thirty-seven civilians), no siblings, parents deceased._

_Notes:_

_- 'Hasn't spoken a word upon being discharged from CGRP.'_

_- Believed to have murdered fifteen Iwagakure Mental Facility nurses (now known as 'the silent killer' by fellow patients and staff)._

_- Expresses fascination with music and spends nearly all free time composing _

The nurse stifled a scream as she reread the file over twice.

She would have to visit this child prodigy, this _murderer_ tomorrow afternoon.

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**{So what do you think? Please review if you want the next chapter to be added sooner!}**


	2. A Morbid Overture

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)**

**Note: Kami- god**

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~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter two: A Morbid Overture~

Miyuki's hand hung suspended in mid-motion as she reached towards the door handle of one of the infirmary quarters as if not quite sure whether or not to open the stainless steel door and reveal the patient within. This was where, in light of recent events, her new charge was situated.

The silver haired case manager gulped before gently tugging on the cold metal handle until it was slightly cracked open.

"Umm…Hello?" she quietly inquired through the doorway.

No answer.

It was at this moment Miyuki mental face-palmed. She had just expected a speechless six year old to respond to her.

Gathering her courage the silver haired Jounin opened the metallic door fully and took a step into the bright sterile room.

A raven haired child sat on the edge of a white hospital bed a heavily bandaged hand hovering above the window before him as if afraid to touch it yet captivated by the fragileness of the wintery scenery on the other side of the cold glass. He wore a grey and black striped woolen sweater which was many sizes too large for him and standard black shinobi shorts and sandals. Miyuki could faintly see Taru's reflection in the glass in front of him. His eyes didn't seem to belong to a child of only six years. Each eye, one pale blue and the other deep brown, gave the impression as if they were brimmed full of sadness and pain. The child's sad aura scared her and made her wish to leave the hospital room immediately.

"Hi there, my name is Miyuki and I'm your new case manager", said the silver haired Jounin in a quiet yet happy.

The six year old turned from the window and gave her a scrutinizing glance.

The woman who had suddenly appeared before him had very short silvery grey hair which covered her left eye and gave a slightly serious look to her lighthearted face. Her visible eye was a piercing forest green that seemed utterly bright to be within an asylum. She wore typical hospital staff attire aside from the vivid cherry mittens partially falling from her right pocket.

He fixed the Jounin with an angry glare that practically screamed 'I hate you'.

Miyuki stepped forward and seated herself next to the child then handed him a yellow pencil and two notebooks, one neon orange and the other a navy blue. The orange notebook was carefully labeled '_Conversation_' and the other labeled '_Thoughts_'.

"This one is so you can communicate with people by writing", said the case manager as she pointed to the orange notebook, "And the other is just to record any thoughts or ideas you have, sort of like a journal."

Taru seemed to stare at her for a moment before opening the bright orange cover of the Conversation book and quickly began writing something on the first page.

Miyuki looked over his shoulder as the six year old wrote. His kanji were very light and tilted slightly to the left.

_Why do you stare at me like I should be in prison? If you detest me please simply say so so that I do not need to pin up false hopes that you have any concern to whether or not I am trapped here or that you even care at all._

The silver haired woman suppressed a gasp. This didn't sound like something a six year old or any other ordinary child would say. Maybe he was like that child prodigy from Konohagakure…the one that had killed his entire clan.

"How'd you wind up in the infirmary Taru?" inquired Miyuki desperately trying to avoid the dark subject which had been brought up.

_You did not answer my question._

"Neither did you."

_I tried to open the window in my room and was promptly electrocuted by the seventh floor's security system. Now it is your turn to answer Miyuki-san._

The explanation made sense, thought the silver haired woman. The seventh floor was the restricted area for patients believed to be violent or unsafe to keep near the other patients and was enabled with several security precautions.

"I barely know you, how could I hate you?" answered Miyuki shakily.

Taru gazed at her coldly for about a minute before continuing to write.

_I do not appreciate dishonesty. I prefer the truth no matter how heartbreaking it may be. Do all case managers interfere as much as you do?_

"Are all of the children here as weird as you are?!"she retorted angrily.

She had said the w-word. The word that was worse to Taru than the vilest of lies.

The raven haired child's mismatching eyes seemed to widen then seemed to fill with a deep mournful sadness as if he were a sheet of glass that had been furiously shattered with a sledge hammer.

"Oh kami…I'm so sorry Taru-"

_Please leave, don't apologize for the truth._

"But-"

_**Please**__ leave._

Miyuki slowly stood up and walked to the stainless steel door. She turned to look back one last time before she left the infirmary room leaving the six year old alone to his thoughts and the silent snow that begun to fall beyond the icy window.

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**{I'm sorry if this chapter was too short. I'll try to make the next one longer. Please review, it encourages me to update sooner!}**


	3. Bittersweet Harmonies

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto or Cheerios; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)****} **

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~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter three: Bittersweet Harmonies ~

As Miyuki quickly rapped on her newest patient's door she began to feel quite aggravated. She had been waiting for someone to come to the locked door for nearly twenty minutes with no avail. Obviously no one had noticed the change in Taru's daily schedule, for now the irritated case manager had collapsed to the floor and was softly thumping her head against the door frame.

"I'm here on time damn it!" grumbled the silver haired Jounin rather loudly.

Suddenly someone began to knock lightly on the other side of the door.

"Taru is that you?" asked Miyuki instantly perking up.

Instead of a verbal reply, a neon orange notebook was shoved under the door.

The case manager quickly flipped ahead to the most recent entry.

_Yes, I am here; but I am unable to open the door. The security officers thought you would refuse to return in light of yesterday's events and; therefore, decided to enable the safety precautions within my cell. If I touch the latches on the window or door I will be electrocuted and be once more in the infirmary. _

"So how do I get in?" the Jounin inquired as she jostled the brightly colored book back under the door frame before quickly receiving a written reply.

_Push some rubber gloves under the door. I could then unlock the door without being shocked._

Miyuki reread the two lines of kanji a second time before commenting and returning the notebook.

"How do I know you won't try to escape?"

The reply came quickly in slightly darkened kanji.

_**If I desired to escape I would have done so long before this moment. Now please find some rubber gloves.**_

The silvered haired Jounin quickly stood up and retrieved some rubber gloves from an empty room down the hall, but couldn't help wondering if the six year old's last statement had a deeper meaning.

----------------------------

With a soft click the grainy wood door fell open. Miyuki gave a soft smile as she handed the orange communication notebook to its owner.

"Sorry, you must be really annoyed by people thinking you're going to escape at the first opportunity", she said in an earnest tone.

The dark haired child gave a nod as he handed the gloves back to the case manager. He then sat down near the end of his neatly made bed and pointed to a chair position on an angle near the window for Miyuki to sit on.

The silver haired woman quickly to her seat and surveyed the room around her.

The walls were painted a sunny yellow that contrasted greatly with the ice that had cemented itself to the other side of the window. On the floor was tightly woven beige-white carpet that made the institution room a slightly less hostile feeling. What truly caught the case manager's eye were the sturdy wood guitar propped against a rod iron leg of the bed and the gigantic piles sheet music placed tidily on a nightstand. There had to be at least one hundred pages of the hand written notes sitting on the aging table top.

"_Wow_", she whispered quietly before speaking again.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question Taru? I'm required to make progress if I want to stay on your case."

The six year old wrote something down then turned the notebook sideways so he could write without having to pause and show Miyuki what he had written.

_I will answer on the condition that you not ask why I was placed in this asylum, about my parents, or regarding my prior situation within CORE._

"Ok", replied the silver haired then paused momentarily.

"Why did you try to open the window yesterday?" she asked quickly.

_I enjoy the powdery snow and thousands of differing frozen water droplets. It is like music you can see. Why did you come back? _

Miyuki gave a soft sigh before answering. Although he was only six, Taru did not act or speak like a typical six year old in any way, shape, or form. She felt like something about him scared her, but she wasn't sure what exactly.

"I don't give up easily", came her calm reply.

The dark haired child seemed to gaze at her for a moment as if staring through her soul.

_You remind me of the children and teachers at the Academy, but they gave up too eventually._

The silver haired case manager didn't know how to respond to this so she just watched as Taru fell lightly backwards and stared at the institutions blank ceiling as he replayed a painful memory in his mind. An unpleasant recollection of just how terrible his situation really was.

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**{Sorry the first few chapters of this will be rather short. Reviews make me write faster! (It's true!)}**


	4. The Outsiders' Concerto

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto or Cheerios; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)**

**Notes: in reply to emodeidara13's question- "**_tanaka? like, rachel uchiha-tanaka's clan_, _tanaka_?"

**NO. It's just a last name I found on a list of Japanese last names on a search engine.**

**Also: Imouto- little sister****} **

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~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter four: The outsiders' concerto ~

A peculiar aura seemed to hang about Miyuki as she trudged home through the fallen snow that blanketed Iwagakure in a haze of white. Her appointment with Taru had ended after the security officers had reported that a door on the seventh level had been opened and she had been thrown out of the asylum for the rest of the day for disobeying institution procedures.

The silver haired Jounin let out a soft sigh as she turned a corner into the hectic streets at the center of the village. Compared to the institution she had been in only moments before, the center of Iwagakure was in an entirely different nation. Her visible forest green eye scanned the village skyline of tall clay colored structures until she spotted her own home only a few blocks away. It was identical to many others of buildings within the Tanaka small compound with the exception of the thousands of ice incased bells that hung from the edges of the roof.

Miyuki smiled as she ran up the street, her blue and white striped scarf blowing behind her. After being near such a serious child as Taru for nearly an hour made her wish for the disorganized harmony within her own family.

-----------------------------------

Upon knocking on the navy blue front door of her home, Miyuki was tackled to the ground by her twin older brothers, Toshi and Hiroshi, while her elder sister, Miya, merely shook her head and muttered about her abnormal siblings.

"Back from the nut-house so early Imouto?" asked Toshi cheerfully.

"This is your last case before you get to join us in the interrogation units, right Miyuki?" queried Hiroshi in his usual warm tone.

Miya sighed as she twirled a strand of her long pale pink hair, "Maybe you idiots should get off of her first?"

The twins gave sheepish smiles before quickly hoping up and each lending their little sister a hand through the open doorframe.

"Thanks blockheads", muttered the disgruntled silver haired Jounin as she dusted the snow of her dark red winter coat then stepped into the warm front hall of the Tanaka home, her older siblings trailing after her.

"Come on, we want to know how your day went! So quit it with the silence already!" shouted the grey haired identical twins in unison.

Miyuki raised an eyebrow, "I find it harder and harder to believe you two are registered elite Jounin."

"That's what the Anbu black ops said when they inspected our sector today", replied the pinkette dryly as she began to sort through the letters bursting through the front door's mail slot.

The silver haired Jounin plopped her sopping wet winter boots, mittens, and coat near a heating register before she and her brothers crowded around Miya.

"Anything good?" inquired Toshi excitedly.

"Bills….junk mail….more bills…there's some envelopes addressed to Hiroshi…and a letter from mom and dad's division!"

Toshi interrupted, "What's the latest update?"

"Hang on, let me check."

The pink haired kunoichi quickly ripped the side off of the red and blue striped envelope, pulled out neatly written note and then began to read the letter aloud.

_Dear kids, your father and I have been up to our eyeballs in paperwork since we arrived at Eastern headquarters last week. This building is filled to the brim with unfinished paperwork! The weather is much warmer here than in Iwagakure, probably because it's outside of the mountains. Our squad won't be deployed from the Eastern base until late May, but we may be able to visit around New Year's. Don't argue, complete your missions, and don't burn down the house, sincerely, Senko & Hayate Tanaka._

"Late May! That's nearly six months!" yelled Toshi in frustration.

Hiroshi remarked coldly, "…Not long enough if you ask me…"

As the arguing commenced Miyuki sniffed, noticing the odd charcoal smell in the air.

"Hey, is something burning?"

"THE FOOD!"

"Forget the food, get a fire extinguisher!"

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The four Tanakas looked around the burned remains of their kitchen. The large grey tiles that covered the floor appeared to be alright, but the curtains were another story. The woven cloths which their mother had sewn last summer now hung limply by a thread and were completely burned. The formerly light blue walls were now black with soot as well as the cabinets.

Toshi was the first to break the silence.

"What did the letter say again?"

"…Don't argue…" murmured his twin as he gazed at the disaster zone.

Miya twisted a lock of pale pink hair uneasily as she spoke, "…complete your missions…"

"…And don't burn down the house…" finished Miyuki.

For about three minutes an awkward silence hung suspend in the smoky air until Hiroshi spoke.

"Microwaved ramen anyone?"

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Miyuki glared at her ramen while she pushed it around the bowl with her cop sticks. Her thoughts swirled with anxiety; at work there was Taru who everyone said was a killer, her parents wouldn't be home in ages, and her CORE training was almost complete.

A quiet sigh.

Everyone in her family was already in CORE except for herself, the little girl no one in her clan, especially her father, thought could ever become a ninja let alone a CORE agent. In the ninja ranks of Iwagakure CORE agents were on par with the Anbu with the exception that their area of expertise were most often the medical or interrogation fields. It was their job to discover potential threats within the Earth country and Iwagakure itself and to degree, test new military technologies. In other words, CORE was the secret police.

Suddenly the silver haired Jounin was pulled away from her thoughts…

"Earth to Miyuki! Are you paying attention?!" yelled Toshi in his younger sister's ear as he elbowed her in the ribs.

Miyuki glowered at her brother for a moment before speaking.

"Remind me what you where saying again?"

The other grey haired CORE agent smiled, "We were just wondering what your patient is like, you haven't said a word about him to us yet Imouto."

"Oh", replied his younger sister, "His name is Taru Wakahisa and he's six years old."

"SIX?! THEY PUT A SIX YEAR OLD IN AN ASYLUM?!?!"

"Supposedly he's a murder or something according to my boss. The records say he's Chunin ranked and graduated from the academy at the age of five."

Toshi gawked at this while Hiroshi responded in a more composed manner, "The son of Konoha's white fang graduated at five years too if I remember correctly…"

"And didn't that prodigy of the Uchiha clan graduate at seven?" remarked Miya.

"Yeah, I think so. Maybe it's genetic or something," supposed Miyuki, "Do you know anything about the Wakahisa clan?"

The elder Tanaka siblings contemplated this for a moment before one of the grey haired twins spoke.

"I remember reading over a shinobi report of their clan a few months ago", mused Hiroshi quietly. "According to the description there are only four ninja in the Wakahisa clan including Taru. One is a retired Anbu operative and the other two are cousins in their second year at the academy."

A frown crossed the CORE agent's face.

"There was a lot of information missing from their files though. I'd be wary if I were you."

The silver haired Jounin felt a wave of anxiety settle over her at this statement. After all, during her visit with the silent six year old she hadn't been able to shake the feeling Taru was hiding something from her.

_Maybe he knows more than he's letting on_, Miyuki wondered to herself.

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**{Wow. I think this is one of the longest chapters I've ever written…*take that procrastination!* As always, please review!}**


	5. Instrumental

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto or Cheerios; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)} **

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~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter five: Instrumental ~

Taru sat silently before the door frame of his cell as he watched fellow patients and staff members pass his open door. Today was particularly busy in the institution the raven haired child thought, or maybe it was always this busy on Fridays? He couldn't remember, usually his door was shut on patient release days.

The six year old blinked his mismatching eyes slowly in an attempt to stay awake.

This confinement was so mind-numbingly tedious and that psychologist was more than two hours late.

_Why is she constantly tardy?_ wondered the musician to himself. _Perhaps she won't come today. _

But the dark haired prodigy knew this was a lie. That woman's eyes gave away what she verbally did not. Clearly, Taru's case was all that kept Miyuki from leaving this establishment for good. She would definitely be back, whether he wanted the case manager to return or not.

His gaze shifted to the navy blue and orange notebooks lying beside him on the carpeted floor. So far he had filled four cramped pages of the orange conversation book, but the carefully labeled '_Thoughts_' notebook was completely empty. Maybe he should dispose of the journal before the psychologist began to pester him about it?

A silent sigh.

No. She'd just bring another one.

His eyes darted to the doorway once more which was now occupied by a nurse.

"It's time for your Breakfast Taru-san", reminded the staff worker timidly as she sat a food tray before the six year old then left.

Taru gave a polite nod of recognition to the nurse then began to swirl some Cheerios around their clear plastic bowl with a spoon from the tray whilst mentally grimacing. He disliked anything that tasted sweet, especially the honey flavored evil that was Cheerios.

Abruptly the dull noise that filled the morning was shattered as shouting reverberated through the institution hallways.

"_Let me through! I'm late for an appointment with a patient!_"

"_I'm sorry miss, but you have to wait your turn in line just like everyone else._"

The raven haired child face-palmed, he recognized that voice. It was that troublesome case manager, Miyuki Tanaka.

"_HEY! Come back here!_"

"_Sorry! But I'm really late!_"

Taru barely had time to react as the silver haired Jounin darted into his room, tripping over the six year old in the process and face-planting hard on the carpet.

"I'm here!" declared Miyuki happily from the floor.

The raven haired child raised an eyebrow then quickly wrote something down in the orange conversation notebook and turned it towards the case manager.

_You're late._

"I know, I know", grumbled the green eyed psychologist as she picked herself up from the carpet, "I have a terrible sense of time…now come on! We're going on a little field trip!"

Taru blinked before responding on paper.

_I'm a seventh level patient in an asylum. You need government clearance for me to so much as leave this corridor, let alone this floor._

"That sounds very pessimistic for a six year old, besides we're just going to the library on the third floor."

_Dare I ask why?_

"Probably not, now hurry up! Security said they'd only give us five minutes!" said the silver haired Jounin as she pulled Taru after her out the door and down the hall towards the library.

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As the case manager and her patient burst through the doors of the vigilantly organized patient library a librarian looked up from the checkout desk and pointed towards a cart full of books stationed near the door.

He grumbled under his breath, "You owe me big time Miyuki."

The silver haired Jounin nodded appreciatively before pulling Taru along after her to the cart.

"Pick anything you think looks interesting, but we only have three minutes."

The six year old's mismatching pale blue and deep brown eyes scanned the titles on black metallic return cart. Among the few books that popped out at him were: _'The Hidden Villages in Photography'_, _'The Ninja Handbook Volume Twelve'_, _'Guitar Classics: Fifth edition'_, and _'Iwagakure: Then and now'_. The other books were mostly simple fables or short stories.

Taru plucked the four books from the cart then handed the stack to Miyuki who briefly skimmed over the titles. Slightly puzzled by the child's selections, she dragged the raven haired child after her to the checkout desk, out the library doors and finally up three flights of stairs to his cell.

Upon reaching the room the case manager checked her watch. They had completed the excursion with fourteen seconds to spare.

The green eyed Jounin breathed a sigh of relief then eyed the uneaten bowl of Cheerios still sitting on the floor.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, no?"

This statement was met by a glare from the six year old.

"Are you always this ill tempered or are you just not a morning person?"

Taru glared daggers once more at her then opened the top book from the stack which they had brought from the patient library. It was a hard covered book that proudly displayed on the front cover in multicolored kanji '_The Hidden Villages in Photography_" above several overlapping pictures.

Miyuki looked over her patient's shoulder at an image of one of Sunagakure's rounded sand stone buildings beautifully adorned with ribbons and lanterns for a summer festival and surrounded by a large crowd of people.

"I took the winter Chunin exams in Suna", murmured the silver haired Jounin softly, "The desert is really pretty at dawn. Where'd you take them at?"

The six year old responded in penciled kanji in the neon orange notebook then turned to a page in the back of the book.

_I participated in the summer Kumogakure Chunin exams. _

The page Taru had turned to had an enlarged photograph which displayed a frozen bolt of lightening illuminating the nocturnal sky over the pointed buildings of the hidden cloud village.

"How'd your squad do?" inquired the case manager as she absorbed every detail of the picture.

_Because I passed the graduation exams the number of students who became Genin was uneven. Instead of being positioned on a three Genin- one Jounin cell I was used as a supplementary team member and subsequently rarely knew my squad mates for more than two weeks at the most, such was so for the Chunin exams. _

"That must've been hard to work with teammates you barely knew for the survival portion of the assessment…"

This time the raven haired child paused before answering to examine a picture of a Konohagakure Genin squad seated at a ramen bar. At the center sat a girl of about twelve years old with a bemused expression on her face as she slurped down some Miso ramen. To her right was seated a dark haired boy with neon orange goggles who yelling at the figure on girl's opposite side. The figure had impassive eyes and gravity defying grey-white hair that was only countered by the mask that he wore over the lower half of his face. Next to the figure their teacher, a blond and blue eyed Jounin, let out a frustrated sigh.

_By that point detachment had become standard to me, so it wasn't particularly difficult._

Instead of replying the psychologist turned to the next page. It showed an old slightly blurred black-and-white photo of a village nestled in a deep valley surrounded by tall snow covered mountains. The structures were composed of some sort of metal that contrasted with the enclosing ice and snow and gave it the look of a citadel. Below the photo was a brief caption which read: _Yukigakure approximately two years before the third civil war in the land of snow. Very little is known about this village which has been inaccessible for more than ten years due to political turmoil and frequent natural disasters. _

Taru traced over the distorted outline of the village with his finger tips then proceeded to write once more in the notebook.

_The seventh floor monitoring staff is coming to remove you._

"What?!" exclaimed Miyuki worriedly, "How do you know?!"

_I can hear their kunai in their holsters bumping against the shuriken. _

The silver haired case manager closed the book and listened intently, but she heard nothing.

"Are you sure?"

_Yes, they are approximately five meters down the hall._

Although she was skeptical it was easier to hide the evidence than argue, so she hastily concealed the books under her patient's bed then breathed a sigh of relief as three staff workers entered the room.

The case manager stared wide eyed for a moment.

"Is something wrong officers?" she asked calmly.

"I'm sorry, but you have to leave now. There is a time limit that charges on this floor are allowed to have visitors", explained one of staff members coolly.

The silver haired Jounin gave a nod then followed the three operatives out of Taru's cell.

_How did he do that_? she speculated as she wandered slowly down the hall and down the stairs on her way out of the building.

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**{Yays! Long chapter! Please review!}**


	6. A Soloists’ Sonata

**{****This is the third of a series of prequels to Beginnings (but because it's a prequel you can still read this before, after or at the same time as Beginnings). Also I do not own Naruto; however, I do own the plot of this story and my great big list of characters on my page including Taru. For reference, this takes place about five years before ****Beginnings**** starts (Which is also about five years before the point where 'Naruto' begins!)} **

-----------------------------------

~ **Rhapsody** ~

~ Chapter six: A Soloists' Sonata ~

Ice encrusted the security guarded glass of the institution windows giving it a slight shimmer and opaqueness as Taru Wakahisa gazed steadily out at the village hidden in the stones. A thick coating of frost covered the roads and buildings making travel quite hazardous for even the most experienced ninja. The only vivid objects in the December scene were a few neon red lanterns that hung outside the market place and the hundreds of fading '_I'm sorry, but we're closed_' signs. The roadway, normal busy with the hustle and bustle of commercial traffic was eerily empty except for the Iwagakure ninja placed on street corners monitoring the deserted streets.

That case manager wasn't coming. Not today.

_Good riddance_, thought the six year old to himself. Althoughin the three short days he had known Miyuki Tanaka she had been fairly civil towards him and even allowed him to go to the patient library for a few short minutes, he still didn't like her.

She may have been able to fool her other patients with that cheerful way of talking, but she couldn't fool Taru. Her visible forest green eye gave her away; she couldn't hide that tiny glint of fear every time she came here. Likewise she couldn't conceal the slight unevenness of her heart rate that revealed her true nervousness.

He hated the way she would nonchalantly ask indirect questions in an attempt to find out just what it was he was hiding from everyone else. His mismatching pale blue and deep brown eyes glared at an empty store near the crossroads. _You don't know me Miyuki Tanaka; you don't know me at all_.

From somewhere at the farthest edges of his mind came a snide reply.

…_**But you don't know her either, now do you? …**_

_It's easier that way_, thought the raven haired six year old quickly shoving this suggestion back to the edges of his thoughts as he pulled a particularly large thick library book from its hiding place beneath his bed.

The tome was leather bound with the simple title _'Iwagakure: Then and now'_ in fading black ink. Overall the volume was quite plain and could easily be mistaken for a large dictionary.

Gently, as not to arouse any of the staff workers that were most likely roaming the halls, Taru slowly flipped through the pages of the aging book until a chapter title caught his eye.

'_The Clans of Iwa', interesting; however, this book is most definitely out of date._

_**Maybe that psychologist's clan is in here?**_

_I should not be concerned about Miyuki Tanaka._

_**I was just saying it doesn't hurt to look.**_

Taru shot an internal death glare at wherever that troublesome devil's advocate was coming from before turning to the section of the chapter on the case manager's clan.

On the first page of the section was a large photograph the raven presumed was of the Tanaka clan. A majority of the individuals, who had the same silver-grey hair as Miyuki and many of whom wore ninja attire, stood glowering at four toddlers near the front of the picture. In the snap shot two identical twins with silvery-grey hair appeared to be losing some sort of game of tug-of-war over a teddy bear with a girl slightly older than themselves. She had long pale pink hair akin to cherry blossoms that contrasted with everything around her and wore soft rose colored sundress. Behind them a scarlet haired woman who cradled a sleeping infant attempted to end the feuding while beside her, her husband gazed at his children strictly.

The raven haired child examined the portrait for a moment before turning to a block of text which described in great detail the names, relations of the clan members, history and the Tanaka clan's signature jutsu style. As he skimmed over the inked black words a short paragraph caught his eye.

-_'Usually placed in interrogation labs, the members of the Tanana clan are known for their expertise in genjutsu and their 'Gate Keeper' jutsu. This technique allows the user to enter the opponent's psyche and search their memories with little interference from the subject.' _-

He blinked a few times as he absorbed the data into his photographic memory. So that's why she had been placed in charge of his case. Miyuki Tanaka was a psychological last resort of the asylum; a tool at their disposal to use when all else had failed.

And now that human weapon was aiming directly at him with deadly accuracy searching for any signs of a possible weakness to exploit.

The six year old exhaled noiselessly. This would be a battle of wills between the two individuals.

A single, simple yet intricate question arose from the child's mind. Who would win this silent war of thoughts? The kunoichi who had specialized interrogation and psychological training and numerous years of experience, or the child prodigy who had been a shinobi for barely two years and was now a detainee within a mental hospital?

Taru closed the aging novel, restored it beneath his bed then pulled out a large textbook labeled in type-writer like kanji, '_The Ninja Handbook: volume twelve_' and turned to a chapter describing counter-genjutsu techniques.

There was no way in hell the six year old would give up without a fight. Not by a long shot.

------------------------------------------

From the fire lit living room of her home more than half way across the village Miyuki Tanaka let out an unspoken gasp as she read over the file report one of her older brothers had managed to 'borrow' from CORE's extensive filing system. It was that of Wakahisa, Taru, her new patient on the maximum security floor, the child that didn't seem even remotely normal.

The large manila folder she currently had scattered in a semi-circle around her was that of the six year old's annual psychological testing beginning at the age of one to the assessment taken on the child nearly two months ago. A hodgepodge of written reports on the young boy's behavior to outdated cassettes of him speaking to a CORE psychologist to printed copies of yearly examinations Taru had taken to check his mental well being.

At the moment the psychologist's forest green eyes had just taken in an examination from just the year before when the raven had graduated from the academy. It was a print-off taken from a computer generated assessment they gave all future, present or retired shinobi following their physical analysis. The test was in actuality quite simple and consisted of thirty photographs placed in a random order. It was up to who ever were taking the test to rate each picture on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being no emotion what so ever and 10 being extreme emotional reaction. A bright red square around a number indicated how Taru Wakahisa had rated an image, a dark blue circle designated where he had ranked a similar image the previous year, and a medium orange triangle showed the average ranking for similar photos for other children in the raven's age group.

At present Miyuki examined an image of a severely injured shinobi lying on a hospital operating table soaked in his own blood. Her expectations about the average ranking of this photograph by the raven's classmates had been accurate; a very high score of 9.129. But this wasn't what had so completely surprised her. On the opposite side of small number line were two completely unexpected shapes, a navy blue circle and a tomato red square that completely enclosed the small number 3.

A child below the age of seven had scored a 3 on an image that all other children in his age group had at least classified as a 9 or above.

And this wasn't even the worst of it; only one number had been chosen for every single image, question, and analysis on the raven's most recent psychological assessment.

Zero.

He had not scored _even_ _one point_ throughout the entire examination. The case manager continued to stare disbelievingly at the data. No wonder this child prodigy had been placed on the highest security floor of an asylum, the majority of the serial killers in the maximum security prison had healthier scores than this damn it! What the hell had happened to make a little kid this screwed up?!

You could almost see the figurative light bulb fire to life as the silver haired Tanaka began to formulate her plan of action…

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**{Sorry for the delays (my updating schedule/internet is messed up), but please review!}**


	7. UPDATE

**UPDATES on Each Story's Status****- This will be blanket posted on all of the stories mentioned before they are deleted/rewritten/Hiatus'd.**

Right now I'm busy going through all of my stories to see what could/should be continued/rewritten, or scrapped. If there is a story you would like me to continue please review or message me about it. Without feedback I don't know if anyone actually reads or likes my stories.

Nireiki, or as I plan to rename it, Half-Life is staying, but is being rewritten. I feel like I left a lot of missed opertunities to expand Madara and Naruto as well as the story arcs. Before I begin posting the rewrite though, I plan to fully map out several of the plot arcs and make sketchs for the middle and end. (Usually I write by the seat of my pants so this may take a while...)

So far, I plan to put Beginnings on a permanent hiatus. I haven't touched it in years and have found irresolvable problems with it during re-reading. It has a very weak plot (if any), suffers from OC overload, and has an abundence of OOCness in the few canon characters in it. Considering how horrible it is, I'm really surprised that I keep getting favorites, alerts, and reviews for it.

Walls of Ivy is also slated for a permanent hiatus; however, my reasoning behind this is a bit different. While it also suffers from an abundance of OCs, the plot is salvageable and parts of it are being reworked into the Nireiki/Half-Life rewrite. Despite its flaws I really like the wartime setting and want to write more from Taree's perspective.

Rhapsody is also going to reworked into Nireiki/Half-Life. This is mainly due to the murder/mystery and horror elements that I had planned for the its main arc, but never got around to writing. Some problems I had with this were the overly slow plot development and abundance of OCs too early in the story. Taru's character seems kind of bland and could be better expanded in a different context.

Unlike its predecessor Permafrost, I plan to keep Frozen. I do plan to shift from my original plotline though. Since I only ever posted the first chapter of Frozen, it can easily be rewritten without needing to be reposted. I really like how the first chapter came out and don't plan to rewrite it. It may be a while before I start updates on this though, due to the massive restructuring of the plot and Kishimoto unveiling Kabuto's screwed up past.

In other news I've had a oneshot in the works for a few months featuring Tobi and Sakura. It's fairly close to canon and is firmly in the horror category. It will probably be posted within a month or two. It's tentatively titled "Descendant."


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